Mining third parties and affinity sources for consumer data needs to be the next step in protection innovation as gender falls away, Ageas has said.
Darren Spriggs, managing director of the provider, said the industry should move forwards from pricing on " homogenous lumps" such as age, and build more individual pictures in underwriting.
He said: "Gender is now not allowed in pricing. Discussions also suggest age and disability could go the same way, but really the question should not be that but more where is the market as a whole moving to next?
"There are a number of key information points about consumers that are available and the challenge will be to think about where and how they can be used.
"I am tired of going to conference after conference that just talks about the widening protection gap, the industry needs to talk about innovation and how."
Spriggs said postcode was something that could be brought into life insurance as an example.
He added what gender had kick started was a innovation movement that the industry needed.
"We are focusing heavily on immediate changes such as gender and RDR now but pricing that is tailored more to an individual and lifestyles is something that is very much in our thinking now," Spriggs said.
"It will not mean more questions for the consumer, but rather using data and information that is out there and available. "
